Gary Neville urges Marcus Rashford to be ‘careful’ after Man Utd star’s 12-hour Belfast bender

GARY NEVILLE has issued Marcus Rashford a warning after his boozy night out in Belfast.

The Sun exclusively revealed that the England star went on a 12-hour bender before phoning in sick to training.

Reuters

Marcus Rashford phoned in sick to training after partying in Belfast[/caption]

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Gary Neville has stressed that Rashford must be ‘careful’[/caption]

Rashford went for drinks at Lavery’s after arriving in Belfast on Wednesday evening

The Man Utd star walked into a nightclub with his arm around a friend at 0:32am

Rashford was pictured inside the nightclub at 0:55am

As punishment, he was left out the squad for United’s 4-2 FA Cup win over Newport County and fined two weeks’ wages totalling £650,000.

Rashford has “taken responsibility” for his behaviour and club staff are supposedly concerned about his partying.

Man Utd legend Gary Neville has urged the 26-year-old to be “careful” and stressed that he is a good professional going through a difficult period.

The pundit also believes Rashford knows he has made a mistake and can put things right by focusing on football.

Neville told BBC Breakfast: “To me, going out for a drink or going out for a night out is something that every football player will do and should do, so I’ve got no problem with that whatsoever. They need to enjoy themselves.

“It’s just all about choices and timing. Manchester United have just had a winter break.

“They’ve had a couple of weeks off so there was a better moment for him to choose to go out.

“I would say, go out and have your moment where you relax with your friends, but your timing has to be right.

“Marcus himself knows – he’s an experienced player now, we’re not talking about a young lad – but he’s done it a couple of times in the last few months.

“I’ve always seen Marcus as being really responsible, a good professional and someone who works hard every single day.

“I know he’s going through a dip in form at this moment in time but it’s happened twice and it can sometimes become your personality if you’re not careful.

“If you do it too many times people can start saying, ‘what’s happening in his life?’

“He just needs to relax, calm down, choose when to go out and get back to playing football at the levels we know he can.”

After he was missing from the United squad at the weekend, Premier League legend Alan Shearer also begged Rashford to get back on track and suggested he needs support.

He said: “There’s a huge talent in there.

“We’ve seen him be disciplined last season when he was late to a meeting before a game but something is clearly wrong – either at home or in his relationship with the football club.

“He can’t keep doing this, he can’t keep wasting his talent because it’s not right.

“He needs strong management, someone to get hold of him and tell him there’ll be huge regrets come the end of his career if he continues doing this.

“You can’t keep doing it, it needs sorting now. Thirty goals last season, four this season. When I see him play, it looks like he’s got the world on his shoulders so it needs sorting now because he can’t really deal with it.”

Pundit Chris Sutton added: “This hasn’t been the first time he’s had a misdemeanour. It’s been continuous. He has no respect for the manager and no respect for his team-mates. That’s the bottom line.”

Rashford’s Belfast bash saw him drink all day and head to a nightclub before finally crashing on a bed fully clothed at 3am just hours before he was expected at Carrighton.

He made it in time for his flight back to Manchester but phoned in sick as he dealt with a hangover.

Rashford has since held crunch talks with Erik ten Hag and he could return to the team for Thursday’s match against Wolves.

But The Sun understands his team-mates are angry with him after they discovered the true reason for his absence.